The game's ending let me down, that's all. The aspect of the story that I liked was neglected. There's no reason for me not to say so.
I assume, since you're catching up, that there's a gap between your listen of 627 and the episodes that came before? I'm not going to relisten to those episodes to check, but on 626 I talked about Sumer and Capcom Beat'em Up Bundle. On 624, Breakforcist Battle and Gunbird 2. These titles weren't perfect and I'm sure I had my gripes, but surely it came through that I enjoyed them.
Yeah i am catching up for sure and to be fair it did seem you very much enjoyed Gunbird. But listening to a ton of episodes in a row (i was 14 episodes behind) it does highlight somethings more often.
Like if you're negative on a game in one episode then in the next episode your negative again and so on it gets more amplified when you're doing back to back listening. Not attacking you or anything just an observation.
But on the Xenoblade 2 i think is really a matter of opinion and what you're looking for.
I loved loved loved Rex, Pary, Mythra and the gang. All of them were tropes for sure but insanely charming and funny and lovable. The relationship between Rex and Pyra was so heart warming and endearing that i could watch them together for hours and not get tired.
I do understand the wanting more world building but at it's heart the story was and is always about Rex and Pyra and the game appropriately concentrated and ended on them IMO.
Me and my kids still go back to the movie viewer in the game and constantly re watch the cutscenes just because these characters are so good.
I know Rex can come off as cheesy due to his always positive and power of friendship trope but it works and it works so well and you don't always need a dark conflicted character. I'm fine having someone always be positive. He did have some conflict in the sense he was unsure of himself at times and did not want to let his friends down.
Again, troppy? sure but done really well.